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Show Federal Emergency Relief Explained INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., May 6 "If the destitute rural family needs a hous?, a cow, work implements, or what not just go and do it," Hairy L. Hopkins, Federal Emergency Emer-gency Relief Administrator, told State relief directors from the Midwest Mid-west in conference here. "We get all balled up because we get too formal about it," said Mr. Hopkins, "In fact, it is fairly simple. sim-ple. These destitute families must have some land, or some new land. You rent land, you buy land, you get land a hundred and one different differ-ent ways. You dicker for land, and I can see that going on now, especially espec-ially down South. All over the South. "Another thing that we will get too formal about, and get to scaring scar-ing people to death," said the Administrator, Ad-ministrator, "is building a new house for a man, just a simple house. It is amazing how many of these people will build their own houses if they have half a chance. They can repair houses, they can put new roofs on. "As for tools and equipment and livestock, the North Carolina Re-, Re-, lief Administration bought a thousand thou-sand mules last winter. They buy j chickens, cows, and farm equipment that the family may need and they ' give it or lend! it to the family, defending de-fending on 'what seems best." Six hundred' thousand farm families fam-ilies are on the relief rolls, and Mr. Hopkins said it is not likely they 'will acquire an 'independent economy" econ-omy" merely by work on the land. "I believe that along with that there has got to foe an opportunity to earn cash income," he declared, "and that means planned public works. "A lot of people don't like the word planned, they are afraid of it, timid. Well, we are coming to it, sure as you are born. In my opinion, opin-ion, we are coming to a point where every job on the State highways in America from coast to coast is going to be deliberately planned for and given to people on the basis of their own particular needs. We are going to stop this poUticahzation of jobs in the highway departments of America. We are not going to get home with this relief unless we. can tie up a proper share of whatever public works are going to be done in America with farm families, and I believe there will be great public works done within the next twenty years." Mr. Hopkins' experience in relief work, he said, has been that some of the best things have been done when the relief administration took the families' own programs and helped them to carry out, ridiculing the thought the "we can simply project our ideas en six hundred thousand farm families." The rural relief activities will provide pro-vide projects to furnish par-time employment, and the administrator urged that this work be to the Interest Inter-est of the rural communities. "Don't let these fellows," he said, "get away with murder any more, such as town supervisors draggling people peo-ple from rural areas into the towns, fixing up the little roads In the towns; that is something that the town and city people ought to do. Farm-to-mlarket roads, rural school buildings, consolidated school buildings build-ings 1 can't think of anything that would be better to do as a work program pro-gram than really to build decent consolidated schools . where they are needed. But work should be given to these families only if it Is leading them home to self support." o |